Ushgarak
The first Star Wars Campaign revolved around the efforts of the Dark Side players to discover the ancient secrets of the Sith, whilst Palpatine manipulated the Jedi players into taking care of these potential rivals (after the Council foresaw that pursuing the Dark Siders would bring no good... as indeed happened).
The centrepiece of this Galactic chase was a place known as the 'Mausoleum of Demnos', of which legend said was invisible to all but worthy Sith acolytes, to whom it would appear and the spirit of Demnos would teach his secrets to.
That was the legend; part of the job of the players (other than finding the place) was to try and work out what the truth behind it all was. A long story short- they were never really happy with the answer. Bwahahaha.
But from the point the Mausoleum became part of the plot onwards, this thread:
http://www.killermovies.com/forums/f7/t12545.html
... remained stuck upon the Star Wars RP area in order to invite discussion and speculation about what the Mausoleum would actually end up being.
Well, folks, we have now come to the equivalent point for the second Campaign! Whilst the Campaign has spent a lot of time messing around iwth the Dark Siders just trying to surivve and shenanigans with the Feds, in the end you cannot beat a good old fashioned ancient Sith plotline (especially with Dark Siders playing) and this is where the story will be steering once more.
At the time of writing, the Dark Siders have discovered that the mystery behind the big Campaign plotline this time is something called the 'Syphar n Kalar', known as the SnK for short.
The story behind the SnK comes from a truly ancient source writing about something older still. Long ago, a man named 'Daemora of Ciceronicus' wrote a highly sensational piece of work called "A Political History of the Nations of the Sith' back during the very, very first time that the Sith invaded the Republic. It was an attempt to record the history of this mysterious new threat before their contact with the Republic.
But although ostensibly a historian, Daemora was more interested in telling a good story than doing serious historical work, and in his times researching he tended to just pass on any story he heard as fact. It was one of these stories that told of this 'Syphar n Kalar', something of such immense and unstoppable power that it brought to an end a mighty planetary siege that had previously been going on for seven years. The story says that after the Syphar n Kalar was used, this endless battle was brought to an abrupt finish in just three days. This led to victory in a massive Sith civil war. The name is all the detail Daemora gives- no idea of what or who it was.
Most serious historians doubt the existence of such a thing- if the Syphar n Kalar really existed, why was it never used again? An unstoppable weapon would have been handy against the Jedi, for a start. However, something about the story has caused much debate in the millennia since Daemora mentioned it, from Sith cultists, jedi historians and even the occasional warlord alike. And references to the SnK turn up every so often, in old writings and recordings... but none pre-dates Daemora's account, and hence it has always seemed likely that they were all just passing on what he said.
But now the Dark Siders have received corroborating evidence that suggests the SnK really DID exist- and furthermore that someone is making serious progress in tracking it down. And so they have begun the process... of tracking it down themselves. And although they do not know it yet, this is a race which the Light Sider players are going to be joining, eventually.
Here is the deal. Unlike last time when you knew nothing of the truth of the Mausoleum until you got there, this time not only is it possible to find out accurate info about the SnK beforehand, it is in fact essential else you will never find it. During gameplay you will pick up certain rumours about what the SnK was, or what it did, or how it worked etc. These rumours should help build up a coherent picture of the truth of the SnK. The problem is... not all the rumours will be true. In fact a good deal of them will be false. It is incumbent upon you as players to work out which ones are right, and hence focus your search in the right direction. if you start looking in the right places, you will start to pick up better and better rumours. If you look in the wrong places, you'll receive more fakes.
This is a process that will take a long time, of curse. So... feel free to speculate away! Incidentally, whilst I am recording all the info here, obviously Light and Dark Siders can only act upon information that their side has received.
The centrepiece of this Galactic chase was a place known as the 'Mausoleum of Demnos', of which legend said was invisible to all but worthy Sith acolytes, to whom it would appear and the spirit of Demnos would teach his secrets to.
That was the legend; part of the job of the players (other than finding the place) was to try and work out what the truth behind it all was. A long story short- they were never really happy with the answer. Bwahahaha.
But from the point the Mausoleum became part of the plot onwards, this thread:
http://www.killermovies.com/forums/f7/t12545.html
... remained stuck upon the Star Wars RP area in order to invite discussion and speculation about what the Mausoleum would actually end up being.
Well, folks, we have now come to the equivalent point for the second Campaign! Whilst the Campaign has spent a lot of time messing around iwth the Dark Siders just trying to surivve and shenanigans with the Feds, in the end you cannot beat a good old fashioned ancient Sith plotline (especially with Dark Siders playing) and this is where the story will be steering once more.
At the time of writing, the Dark Siders have discovered that the mystery behind the big Campaign plotline this time is something called the 'Syphar n Kalar', known as the SnK for short.
The story behind the SnK comes from a truly ancient source writing about something older still. Long ago, a man named 'Daemora of Ciceronicus' wrote a highly sensational piece of work called "A Political History of the Nations of the Sith' back during the very, very first time that the Sith invaded the Republic. It was an attempt to record the history of this mysterious new threat before their contact with the Republic.
But although ostensibly a historian, Daemora was more interested in telling a good story than doing serious historical work, and in his times researching he tended to just pass on any story he heard as fact. It was one of these stories that told of this 'Syphar n Kalar', something of such immense and unstoppable power that it brought to an end a mighty planetary siege that had previously been going on for seven years. The story says that after the Syphar n Kalar was used, this endless battle was brought to an abrupt finish in just three days. This led to victory in a massive Sith civil war. The name is all the detail Daemora gives- no idea of what or who it was.
Most serious historians doubt the existence of such a thing- if the Syphar n Kalar really existed, why was it never used again? An unstoppable weapon would have been handy against the Jedi, for a start. However, something about the story has caused much debate in the millennia since Daemora mentioned it, from Sith cultists, jedi historians and even the occasional warlord alike. And references to the SnK turn up every so often, in old writings and recordings... but none pre-dates Daemora's account, and hence it has always seemed likely that they were all just passing on what he said.
But now the Dark Siders have received corroborating evidence that suggests the SnK really DID exist- and furthermore that someone is making serious progress in tracking it down. And so they have begun the process... of tracking it down themselves. And although they do not know it yet, this is a race which the Light Sider players are going to be joining, eventually.
Here is the deal. Unlike last time when you knew nothing of the truth of the Mausoleum until you got there, this time not only is it possible to find out accurate info about the SnK beforehand, it is in fact essential else you will never find it. During gameplay you will pick up certain rumours about what the SnK was, or what it did, or how it worked etc. These rumours should help build up a coherent picture of the truth of the SnK. The problem is... not all the rumours will be true. In fact a good deal of them will be false. It is incumbent upon you as players to work out which ones are right, and hence focus your search in the right direction. if you start looking in the right places, you will start to pick up better and better rumours. If you look in the wrong places, you'll receive more fakes.
This is a process that will take a long time, of curse. So... feel free to speculate away! Incidentally, whilst I am recording all the info here, obviously Light and Dark Siders can only act upon information that their side has received.